Chinese telecoms have forgotten to pay their electricity bills, leaving some users without network connectivity to use their mobile phones.

The property management company of Beijing's Xinqidian Jiyuan has cut off the power supply of the base stations and amplifiers of Beijing Mobile and Beijing Unicom at the Xinqidian Jiayuan residential area because the two telecoms have failed to pay their electricity bills. As a result, many residents of the surrounding buildings have been unable to use mobile phones.

A representative surnamed Liu from Xinqidian Jiayuan's property management company has told local media that Beijing Unicom and Beijing Mobile have installed more than 70 amplifiers since the end of 2002 when their base stations were originally built, but they have never paid any electricity fee for those amplifiers. Liu said that the two companies have defaulted on about CNY200,000 in the past four years and after their discussion with the two operators' bore no fruit, they cut their power supply.

Liu said that the two mobile operators, using faulty logic, believed that there was no need for them to pay the electricity fee now that their base stations were built and they can provide better serve to the residents.

Representatives from Beijing Mobile and Beijing Unicom said that they have been negotiating with the property management company of Xinqidian Jiayuan as the two sides hold different views on the amount of electricity fees that should be paid. Beijing Unicom is supposedly near a deal with the property management company and the Unicom says it will soon resume the power supply for its users. But Beijing Mobile still insists that it has not done anything wrong by not paying the electricity fee.